Zabaglione

Zabaglione recipe, a simple Italian custard dessert made with egg yolks, sugar, and Marsala wine. Also known as zabayon or sabayon.

Yield:Serves 6.

Ingredients

6 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup Marsala wine

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Ground cinnamon

Vanilla extract

1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Strawberries, raspberries, or biscotti

Method

1 Place egg yolks, and sugar in a large, round-bottomed stainless steel bowl. Add grated lemon peel and a pinch of cinnamon and a drop of vanilla extract to the yolk mixture. Pour in the Marsala wine. You can use sweet Vermouth as a substitute for the Marsala.

2 Half-fill a pot with water, bring the water to a simmer and reduce the heat to low. Set the pan or bowl containing the custard mixture over the water; the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water. Whisk the custard mixture, making sure that the water does not boil. This ensures that a gentle, even heat thickens the mixture without curdling it. Whisking traps air in the yolks for a light, fluffy mixture.

3 Continue whisking for about 10 minutes, until the mixture triples in volume, froths up and becomes pale. When it reaches the desired consistency, take the container of custard out of the pot. Slightly thickened, the custard can be used as a sauce. Longer cooking will thicken the custard further, giving it the texture of mousse. Continue whisking for a minute or two to prevent the custard from sticking to its container.

4 Serve the custard while still warm, or, if you want to serve it cool, set it aside for about 15 minutes. Whisk heavy cream until it forms soft peaks; add the whipped cream to the cooled custard and use a whisk to gently fold them together. Reserve some of the whipped cream to serve on top.

Ladle the zabaglione into individual dishes. Serve with whipped cream, berries, and/or cookies such as biscotti.

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Comments

Jill

My grandmother was from casa nova a little town above Florence. She would make a custard with a plain type of cake underneath and merange on top. She has been gone for 10 years now and my family thought that my aunt had the recipe but she says she doesn’t.
So can anyone tell me is This the recipe?
My grandmother always called it crams.

I was born in Italy and my mom is from Naples. I grew up eating this simply as raw egg yolk whipped with sugar and as kids we whipped it in mugs ourselves with forks! I’ve never eaten it cooked but.of.course.we don’t eat raw egg anymore in the US so I will try it this way. Sounds yummy.

I was first introduced to this desert when I was busing tables at a resturant by the name of leaning tower when I was a kid with a apatite for deserts . And now twenty years later I am a J.C and am doing a remodel on the place and find my self craving it . So thanks for info I will try it.

my grandmother used an italian custard for her conolis could this be It. If not any Ideas I have never had custard like hers. as a little boy all i remember is the doub;e boiler metal wisk and lemon zest.

My personal taste totally disagrees with the author’s comment that the “original” had too much sugar… to me, the altered version has WAYYYYYY too much wine and not near enough sugar, but I’ve always liked my zabaglione to have equal parts sugar/wine (or sometimes even a little more sugar than wine if I have a particularly sweet tooth or if I’m pairing it with something a little tart). I also happen to drop the cinnamon because I dislike it, but I like the added lemon zest for a fresh alternative!

I have made zabaglione (pronounced “zabayon”) for years. I’m no cook, but this is my go-to dessert recipe because it’s unique and once you know what result you’re looking for, easy.

@ Joanne: remember, the main ingredient is egg. If you have stiff, solid product at the bottom of the pan, that means you overheated and underwhisked. Half the trick with this recipe is to maintain a strong whisk throughout to cook evenly and maintain a froth. I skip the whisk and use electric mixers right over the stove on a low/medium heat until the liquid is a pale yellow and there are little bubbles. You mainly want to get it from a yellow mustard hue to more of a dijon.

@ Rufus: I don’t use any of those ingredients either. I only use the egg, sugar, and marsala because I like to keep things simple! I disagree about the fruit though. I think nothing complements the warm zabaglione better than a cup of fresh blackberries or chopped strawberries.

ahh, this recipe makes me sad. Because I had it in a gelato, and loved it, but when I tried to make it- it was a disaster! I think my plastic whisk didn’t do its job, the heavy cream wouldn’t fluff, and then the mixture was also very bitter from the wine, overpowering! I’m not sure what I did wrong . . . *sigh*. maybe it’s too hard for me or the wine was low quality. :(

I have to disagree with the person who said fruit doesn’t has a place in this recipe! I’ve been making Zabaglione for years and am always looking for recipe variations to try. I LOVE it over a slice of pound cake or angel food cake, topped with berries! YUM! As to the “disagree” part – have it with whatever floats YOUR boat! I said how I like it, but its certainly not *the* way! Its *a* way! PS – I use Amaretto in place of the wine, and usually macerate strawberries/mixed berries in Amaretto overnight and spoon them over the custard! VERY YUM!

The lemon peel, cinnamon and fruit are unnecessary and probably not good because the peel bits will spoil the silky smoothness of this dessert and the cinnamon will add a foreign and distracting flavour. The vanilla is OK – it is a subtle flavour and will complement rather than fight with the egg. The fruit simply has no place in this dessert. Sorry.

You might want to try whipping the egg yolks and sugar separately before adding the other ingredients. They should double to triple in volume and become very pale.

Another dessert variation is to add an equal volume of fresh, whipped heavy cream to the above recipe and freeze. The result is a rich, fluffy custard type ice cream great with fresh fruit or a warm cookie.

I tried this recipe several times. The flavors are superb, but I could not get the right consistency. I used a wire wisk and heated it as instructed but it never thickened. I also tried it with an electric hand mixer and it got frothy but still not thick.

Hi Elise – just found your BLOG and love it !! I have already copied several of the recipes.
Very happy that I found a recipe for Zabaglione. When we lived in Europe, a Beligium friend made it for us. She called it “Sabayon” and didn’t need a recipe but she did show me how she did it. Now I can make it for myself.